Via Technologies, Inc.

S3 Graphics Co., Ltd.

Mike Hong

Dong-Ying Kuo

John Wakefield Brothers

Yin Yan Li

Yang (Jeff) Jiao

Jim Xu

Qunfeng (Fred) Liao

Mark Zheng

Lin Chen

Yunjie Xu

Fred Liao

A system for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit of a graphics processing unit is disclosed. A method for integrating triangle setup and attribute setup operations into a programmable execution unit graphics processing unit is also disclosed. In one embodiment, at least one execution unit is configured for multi-threaded operation. The at least one execution unit is configured to execute at least one thread for triangle setup operations and attribute setup operations as well as threads for pixel shader, geometry shader and vertex shader operations.

Triangle setup and attribute setup integration with programmable execution unit

Methods and systems for data compression and decompression in a graphics processing system are provided. For example, in at least one embodiment, a method comprises distributing the graphics data values of a pixel block about zero to minimize redundancy, and the pixel block includes a plurality of quadrants. The method further comprises determining whether to encode the distributed graphics data values, and responsive to a determination to encode the distributed graphics data values, encoding at least one graphics data value of one of the quadrants depending on an encoding indicator. The encoding includes determining an entropy parameter and dividing each positive data value by the entropy parameter yielding an entropy part and a noise part.

System and method for data compression and decompression in a graphics processing system

Systems and methods for border color handling in a graphics processing unit are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a border color register that stores at least one border color pointer. A border color pointer indicates an address in an external memory at which border color information is located. Border color information is populated within external memory and retrieved by the texture cache controller if the texture filter unit requires a border color for texture mapping operations.

Systems and methods for border color handling in a graphics processing unit

A lighting evaluation unit in a graphics processing system. The lighting evaluation unit includes a calculation unit having dot product circuitry used in determining specular, diffuse, spot, and attenuation components of a lighting equation in parallel. In one embodiment, the lighting evaluation unit is constructed in a pipeline manner, and includes multi-use circuitry for performing dot product calculations.

Multi-stage fixed cycle pipe-lined lighting equation evaluator

A token-based buffer system for a geometry pipeline in three-dimensional graphics comprises: a buffer control initialization (BCI) unit, a new token or index module, a geometry control pipeline, a vertex buffer, and a processing engine. The token-based buffer system provides a shared resource environment in which tokens are assigned for blocks of data. Each block of data includes that data necessary for each unit or stage in the geometry pipeline to perform its computation. The use of tokens is advantageous because it optimizes the storage efficiency for storing the blocks of data and ensures the correctness of the data as it is passed between stages.

Token-based buffer system and method for a geometry pipeline in three-dimensional graphics

A system and method for implementing a z-range buffer during the generation and display of three-dimensional graphical images. The display screen is partitioned into a plurality of display blocks. For each display block, the z-range buffer stores minimum and maximum depth values (z-values) of a front layer of the block and a back layer of the block. The z-range buffer further stores a bitmask value where each bit in the bitmask associates a pixel in the block to either the front layer or the back layer. When a new triangle is to be displayed, the minimum and/or maximum z-values of the pixels of the triangle are compared with the minimum and/or maximum z-values of the front layer and/or the back layer. By making such z-comparisons, it is often possible to make generalizations of the z-values of the remaining pixels in the triangle without individually analyzing their z-values.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Mike Hong